That, Fehrman says, is why “Author in Chief: The Untold Story of our Presidents and the Books They Wrote” (Avid Reader Press) took 10 years to write. And he would include stories about everyday readers who lived in the times when the various books were written, using them to illustrate how presidential books might have been valued and received by the readers of each era. And he would include insights not only from those books but from media contemporary to those books.Īnd he would described how campaigns were run and how elections evolved. So Fehrman decided that his book would not only talk about the books written by presidents, but it also would talk about the context surrounding those books. It’s important to appreciate printing technology over the years, he suggests, and how books have been marketed from campaign to campaign. To grasp the value people put on books, you need to know how relatively expensive a book might be from era to era. Like, for example, to appreciate early presidents’ literary ambitions, it’s important to understand how people viewed authors in the 18 th century (arrogant show-offs). Just focusing on the books would leave out a lot of factors affecting those books. He realized that the presidential books themselves aren’t the whole story.

Pretty simple, right? Just make a list of all of those books, read them and then tell people about what you’ve read.īut something happened as Fehrman researched his book.

It would be a book about the books that presidents write. About 10 years ago, journalist and historian Craig Fehrman got an idea for a book.

Author in Chief by Craig Fehrman